If you're talking about effective bed and breakfast marketing you have to be talking about a website, right? In today's world doing business without a website is like waving at someone in a dark room. You know you're doing it but nobody else does!
Regardless of your personal skill level in this area, you absolutely must have a presence on the world wide web. If you don't then your potential guests are simply going somewhere else. Initially the impact might be low. Eventually it will be huge. People will book their accommodation via their laptop, their ipad, their phone... if they can't find you among your competition you're going to have a lot of empty beds!
So a website is a given. The challenge is, what sort of website? There are dozens of "free" options for a start. Then there are the "just $19.99 a month" type. Then there are professional web designers where the fees start to get considerably higher but you would hope the skill level does too.
Before you blow your bed and breakfast marketing budget let's have a quick look at those options.
The "free" site. The advantage is the cost, the disadvantages? I really don't have the space here to list them all. Now you might consider that a flippant answer but I'm quite serious. Free sites are a waste of time. They provide insufficient services, frequently the support is near non-existent, the search engines don't like them so nobody will see your site... but that's not the worst of it. You have absolutely no control. The owners can impose advertising which will generate the most income for them... but might be entirely inappropriate for you.
For the good of your accommodation business, do not get a free website.
The "pay x-amount a month" type of offer is usually better supported and some of them are run by really friendly folks. You don't get the interference of outside advertising either. Styling is often a bit limited and I have that ongoing problem with who has control. Who says how many pages you can have? How much it's going to cost each month? Do you really get all you need for your monthly fee or is there a need to add extras... at extra cost?
So we come to the pros. The guys and gals who are supposed to be the best at this stuff - but who will inevitably make the biggest hole in your bed and breakfast marketing budget! If you can afford it there are lots of good reasons for finding a professional b & b website designer. If you can find someone who knows the market, rather than someone who builds sites for all and sundry, even better. If there's a drawback it's that every time you want something changed it's going to cost you. Then there's still that question of control.
Are you sensing a bit of a theme here? So am I saying that the only sensible solution is to build your own website? I know many people are less than thrilled by that idea!
Which is quite understandable. We've all seen DIY websites that look, shall we say, less than professional. It's not really the fault of the bed and breakfast owners who put them together. The cheap software is next to useless and the really good software is both expensive and difficult to get to grips with. Most people have better things to do with their time... like running their guest house?
Fortunately in recent years a new solution has emerged. The ease of use and simplicity of a blog combined with the power, flexibility and control of content management systems. A true do-it-yourself method which, frankly, most web designers would rather you didn't know about. It's now possible to build a web presence that can be the equal of what the pros do, whilst keeping the vast majority of your bed and breakfast marketing cash in your pocket!
Regardless of your personal skill level in this area, you absolutely must have a presence on the world wide web. If you don't then your potential guests are simply going somewhere else. Initially the impact might be low. Eventually it will be huge. People will book their accommodation via their laptop, their ipad, their phone... if they can't find you among your competition you're going to have a lot of empty beds!
So a website is a given. The challenge is, what sort of website? There are dozens of "free" options for a start. Then there are the "just $19.99 a month" type. Then there are professional web designers where the fees start to get considerably higher but you would hope the skill level does too.
Before you blow your bed and breakfast marketing budget let's have a quick look at those options.
The "free" site. The advantage is the cost, the disadvantages? I really don't have the space here to list them all. Now you might consider that a flippant answer but I'm quite serious. Free sites are a waste of time. They provide insufficient services, frequently the support is near non-existent, the search engines don't like them so nobody will see your site... but that's not the worst of it. You have absolutely no control. The owners can impose advertising which will generate the most income for them... but might be entirely inappropriate for you.
For the good of your accommodation business, do not get a free website.
The "pay x-amount a month" type of offer is usually better supported and some of them are run by really friendly folks. You don't get the interference of outside advertising either. Styling is often a bit limited and I have that ongoing problem with who has control. Who says how many pages you can have? How much it's going to cost each month? Do you really get all you need for your monthly fee or is there a need to add extras... at extra cost?
So we come to the pros. The guys and gals who are supposed to be the best at this stuff - but who will inevitably make the biggest hole in your bed and breakfast marketing budget! If you can afford it there are lots of good reasons for finding a professional b & b website designer. If you can find someone who knows the market, rather than someone who builds sites for all and sundry, even better. If there's a drawback it's that every time you want something changed it's going to cost you. Then there's still that question of control.
Are you sensing a bit of a theme here? So am I saying that the only sensible solution is to build your own website? I know many people are less than thrilled by that idea!
Which is quite understandable. We've all seen DIY websites that look, shall we say, less than professional. It's not really the fault of the bed and breakfast owners who put them together. The cheap software is next to useless and the really good software is both expensive and difficult to get to grips with. Most people have better things to do with their time... like running their guest house?
Fortunately in recent years a new solution has emerged. The ease of use and simplicity of a blog combined with the power, flexibility and control of content management systems. A true do-it-yourself method which, frankly, most web designers would rather you didn't know about. It's now possible to build a web presence that can be the equal of what the pros do, whilst keeping the vast majority of your bed and breakfast marketing cash in your pocket!